I made a quick, whirlwind trip to St. Louis last week & was able to do a couple of sessions while I was there. The weather was gorgeous & made for a great evening for an engagement session!
I absolutely adore Ali & Travis…they are so sweet & I am thrilled to be photographing their wedding in May! We met in St. Charles & had so much fun walking around & exploring the town. (It was hard not to want to shop & eat at all of the little local shops!) Here’s a few from their session:
Wow, absolutely beautiful.
When you look at this picture…what do you think is missing?
If you said a beautiful, Korean baby boy…we agree!
Tyler & I made the decision this past fall to pursue international adoption & we chose South Korea as the country for our adoption to take place. We have been filling out loads of paperwork, attended a training seminar, and have been working on lots of online training as well. We have scheduled medical checkups to show that our family is healthy, will be getting fingerprints done this week, and will begin the homestudy process shortly.
They said that the adoption process usually has a few bumps in the road during the adoption journey, and we hit a big one this past week. Our agency, Lifelink, is transitioning out of International Adoptions & will be merging all of its cases with another agency. We don’t exactly know what all that will mean for us and our current time line. We’re just trusting God through this process, but it is hard not to be a little anxious about it!
I’m sure one thing many of you want to know is “How long will it take?” The short answer is…we don’t exactly know! The merger may change some of this, but by our best guesses here’s what we think may happen. We submitted our application in the beginning of October. They said it’s about 15 months from application to referral…so we should get a photo of our son in early 2011. Then, it’s about 5-9 months from the time we see his picture to the time when we get to travel over to Korea to pick him up and bring him home with us! It will be about another 6 months after he’s home with us that the adoption will be finalized. So…we are hoping that late summer/early fall 2011 he will be home with us! He will most likely be between 10-14 months when he get him.
I’m sure lots of you have questions & I don’t mind answering them! Feel free to leave them in the comments section & I’ll do another blog post soon with answers to your questions! After the homestudy is complete, it will be a LONG waiting process & there won’t be any new information to update. We will continue to keep you updated here on the blog…but often times there will be nothing to report. Just lots of waiting and anticipating!
Please pray for us as we begin this journey. Please pray for our agency during this transition time & that everything will go smoothly there, please pray for our son’s birth mother as she is going to have to make the difficult decision to put her sweet baby up for adoption, pray for Mason & Millie as they will learn to adjust to a new brother, and please pray for us that we will be the best parents possible for our son.
Over the course of the next year, I am sure that we will be doing a few fundraisers (Yard sales, etc) to help raise some money to fund the adoption. We’ll keep you posted here on the blog on those as well!
We are so excited to be on this journey & look forward to meeting our new little guy sometime next year!
Love,
Tyler, Kellie, Mason & Millie
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I am absolutely thrilled for you all!!! Can’t wait to hear more about your journey!!
I am very happy for you and your family. Will be praying that this process is not super stressful for you. Congrats
Kellie,
Wow, I just decided to check out you blog since I hadn’t in awhile. The kids are getting SOOO big!!! What a gorgeous family picture. Millie has grown leaps and bounds since the last time I check in on you guys. Sounds like it’s been busy. Congrats on going through the adoption process. That is so exciting! What a wonderful thing for your family to do for another family. Looks like the photography business is booming. Your work is awesome! You need to get to Ohio so I can “hire” you!!!! Take care and good luck with the adoption process!
Kellie,
I just heard of you thru Tina Brooks and as a fellow photographer, I want to wish you the best! My husband and I have been ‘in the adoption process’ for the past 28 months. We are anticipating the healthy delivery of a baby boy in the next couple weeks. It’s been a long process and we’re not thru it yet but each step of the way is another step of preparation (emotional, physical, etc.) We have been with Bethany Christian Services for almost 2 years now and they are a great adoption agency both domestic and international. Best of luck to your family. I’ll look forward to seeing some pictures of the new addition when he arrives! -Syndy
http://www.studioonthesquare.blogspot.com
YAY!!!!! SOOO very excited for you all…. that baby will have one amazing family!!! xooxox
Kellie, I am so excited for you guys. I’m sorry to hear about the agency problem. I have an adoption friend who’s also with Lifelink and they’ve been trying to decide if they are going to change agencies. Hope everything smoothes out soon and you can get started on your h.s. I’m excited to follow your journey and wouldn’t it be cool if we were in Korea at the same time?
I am very happy for you guys! I can’t wait to see the newest addition to the Penn family! How exciting it will be when you first see him!
This is so exciting!! I remember a while back when you said you were thinking about adoption and I’m so glad you guys are on the road to having (another) little boy!! You guys will definitely be in my prayers! (I’m also very excited for your yard sale fundraisers, as you might have guessed!) (O:
You know I am so happy for you! I can still remember you sitting on the floor of my office the summer Camden came home talking about this (right before you were pregnant with Miles and Mason). Prayers that the time goes by quickly!
How wonderful!! We will pray!
So, so, SO excited for you. Adoption is such a beautiful thing. I am excited for you to meet the little boy who was from the foundation of the world, created to be part of the Penn family. May you find each other quickly!
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I LOVE these pictures!!! Well done. These are some of the sweetest baby pics ever!!!
Seriously…how in the world is Kadyn already 9 months? I can’t believe how quickly his first year is flying by! The first year cake smash photos are going to be here before we know it! We decided to go with oreos for this session. I also had another 9 month session that day that did oreos as well. I think I ended up with quite a bit of oreos on me after we were all done with it…but not near as much as the babies did! There was chocolate goo everywhere!
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I’m dying. These are so adorable.
For those of you that weren’t able to make it to the open house, here’s a little peek into the studio!
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seriously…. WOW! Its amazing… Im getting goosebumps just thinking about how you must feel! What a great accomplishment! Your studio is simply PERFECT! Congratulations girl!
Absolutely breathtaking! I love it! So excited for you!
Wow! I love the colors and all the pictures you have up!
WOW Kellie! This is just gorgeous! Now I am sad that I don’t live close to you anymore and can’t have you take our pictures! 
Good luck with everything!
Jaime Young
This is wonderful Kellie! I am so excited for you!
W.O.W. Kellie! I ::heart:: your gorgeous new studio! Congrats, sweetie, you’re SO talented!
Oh my gosh Kellie….I love the studio, and Joe and I even made it on the wall….I feel so special! Cannot wait till our wedding to see the awesome pictures!!
WOOHOO! This is just GORGEOUS! Now you need to come decorate my house….and take my family’s pictures. I’m so excited for you!!
Awesome job! Looks just perfect.
Your studio is GORGEOUS!! Congrats!! I LOVE it!
I love what we did!!! We should be so proud! This is such a good year for us. I thank God I met you. He has some GREAT plans for us. Love ~ Val
Oh my Kellie… the studio is more than Amazing!!! It is just georgous! It makes me want to get married again and this time you won’t be in the wedding you will shoot it. You are so talented. Love you and I am so proud of you!!!
Oh my goodness Kelly!! I couldn’t be more proud of you if I tried!! Your studio is AMAZING and so are you!!! Lots of love to you my friend!! xo
WOW – Great Prints, Cool Old Cameras, Nice Space!! Enjoy.
I had to comment because everything looks so truly fabulous!
Best of luck with your new space!
WOW!!!!! That is to-die-for gorgeous!!! I absolutely love it!!!
Absolutely AMAZING!. You have executed this project with perfection. I love all the canvases and variations of print sizes. You have displayed your work well. I am actually pretty jealous that I don’t have a space like this. I’m looking forward to shooting more with you this summer. Thanks for putting the cigar photo up in the studio. That made me smile tonight. God has blessed with this space. Congrats!
The studio looks amazing! You executed this project with perfection. I love all the canvas and different size art work. I am quit jealous! Thanks for hanging the cigar photo in the studio. That made my night. I look forward to this summer shooting some more with you on weddings. I so proud of you! God has blessed you richly with this space!
SWEEETT!!! it looks amazing! congrats!
Kellie it is so awesome, so proud of you!
Wow, this is amazing! You did a wonderful job on it!
Um….WOW! Color me green
hold on wait… i have to dry the drool from my keyboard…. ok thats better..lol Love it!
Just beautiful! ENJOY!
What an amazing space-congratulations-I’m beyond jealous! Great displays on the walls…and that blue wall is gorgeous!
GORGEOUS! so excited for you
Wow!! Your studio is gorgeous!!
Kellie!!!! this is absolutely GORGEOUS!!! totally excited for you.
love the color scheme. the decor. everything! yay!
The studio looks great! All your hard work is making your dreams come true!
oh kel this is AMAZING!
WOW!!! I am so so so Impressed and I must say…Totally Envious.
Looks Fabulous. I LOVE the feel of the place. What a beautiful place.
Gorgeous! Nice job!
GORGEOUS! I definitely have studio envy! Good luck in your new place!
This is so beyond fabulous! Beautiful.
I am sinfully jealous! (literally) AH MAZE ING!!!!!!!
GORGEOUS Kellie!!! I am seriously passing out
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